The Latin music sensation, famous for chart-topping tracks like “MIA” and “Me Porto Benito,” is set to take the stage in Santa Clara, California, this February.
The National Football League announced on Sunday that Bad Bunny the Puerto Rican superstar born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX halftime show on Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The announcement, made by the NFL together with Apple Music and Roc Nation, places one of the world’s most influential Spanish-language artists on what is still television’s most coveted live stage.
The reveal came during a Sunday-night broadcast and was accompanied by statements that framed the performance as both a pop-culture moment and a cultural milestone. The halftime telecast will be produced by DPS with Roc Nation and Emmy-nominated producer Jesse Collins serving as executive producers; Hamish Hamilton has been named director. Apple Music will be the presenting sponsor, continuing its recent partnership with the NFL on the halftime show. Those production credits suggest the league is planning a cinematic, globally oriented spectacle that leans on both mainstream staging expertise and Roc Nation’s artist-driven curatorial approach.
Bad Bunny is now one of the most commercially dominant and culturally visible Latin artists of his generation. He has won three Grammy Awards and is a multiple Latin-Grammy winner, achievements that underscore his ability to move between Spanish-language urban music and the mainstream Anglo market. The Recording Academy’s artist profile lists three GRAMMY wins and ten nominations through the most recent ceremonies. Beyond awards, Bad Bunny has headlined stadiums, staged a massively attended residency in Puerto Rico, and broadened his résumé into acting, fashion collaborations and sports ownership all markers of a global pop star whose brand extends well beyond records.
Listeners know Bad Bunny for a string of hits that blend reggaeton, Latin trap, and pop aesthetics songs that translate into high-energy halftime fodder. Tracks such as “MÍA” (featuring Drake), “Me Porto Bonito” (with Chencho Corleone) and “Dákiti” (with Jhay Cortez) have not only topped Latin charts but crossed over to global playlists and the Billboard Hot 100, demonstrating his capacity to command non-Spanish-speaking audiences as well. Those songs, with their rhythmic hooks, sing-along choruses and production versatility, offer a ready palette for a halftime set that could mix sprawling, arena-scale spectacle with intimate, culturally specific moments.
A solo Spanish-language artist headlining the Super Bowl halftime show is significant on several levels. First, it signals an acceptance on arguably the most-watched live broadcast stage in the U.S. of Spanish-language popular music as not just a crossover curiosity but a primary current in global pop.
Second, Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rican identity and outspoken engagement with cultural and social issues mean the performance could carry explicit references to heritage, pride and politics; producers and the artist himself have framed the show as tied to his roots. The NFL and Roc Nation have emphasized cultural reach and global appeal in recent halftime bookings, and Bad Bunny’s selection continues that trajectory.
The Super Bowl halftime show remains television’s most-watched single live entertainment event. Last year’s halftime performance by Kendrick Lamar set a very high benchmark, drawing roughly 133.5 million viewers across platforms and breaking records for halftime viewership. By placing Bad Bunny on that stage, the NFL and Apple Music are signaling expectations for both massive live audiences and significant streaming and catalog-consumption bumps in the days afterward a pattern that has followed many prior halftime performances.
Given the producers involved (DPS, Roc Nation, Jesse Collins) and director Hamish Hamilton who has overseen numerous large live broadcasts several production paths are plausible:
• A visually theatrical, kinetic show: Bad Bunny has put on elaborate stadium productions on tour and during his Puerto Rico residency; a halftime set could condense that scale into tight, cinematic segments with rapid costume and staging shifts.
• Guest appearances: Historically, halftime shows invite surprise guests. Bad Bunny’s wide network across Latin and global pop collaborators like Jhay Cortez, Chencho Corleone, or even non-Latin superstars he’s worked with makes surprises likely.
• Language and bilingual moments: Expect a mixture of purely Spanish segments and perhaps bilingual lines to reach the whole TV audience, balancing cultural specificity with broad accessibility.
• A political or cultural statement: Bad Bunny has been unapologetically
Puerto Rican and socially aware in the past; producers will need to balance any potential messages with the NFL’s broadcast constraints, but there is room for meaningful symbolism choreography, visuals, or guest cameos that nod to his heritage.
Past halftime shows have produced immediate, measurable boosts in streaming, downloads and catalog activity for the artists involved. Bad Bunny’s catalog, already dominant on streaming platforms, would very likely see another surge in plays and playlist additions. Beyond music, the commercial impact extends to fashion, ticket demand for tours, and wider brand engagements all of which feed back into the artist’s global profile and negotiating power. The Apple Music partnership also suggests a major streaming-platform activation around the performance (exclusive content, playlists, behind-the-scenes clips), amplifying the economic and cultural payoff.
Booking Bad Bunny for Super Bowl LX is a snapshot of how pop culture continues to internationalize: Spanish-language music is no longer a niche on the periphery but a center of gravity for teenage and young-adult streaming audiences worldwide. The selection also underscores how the NFL through its Apple Music and Roc Nation partnership is curating halftime acts that speak to global demographics and streaming trends rather than only traditional pop-radio metrics. For Puerto Rico and for Latinx communities across the Americas and beyond, the performance will feel like both validation and visibility on one of the world’s largest televised stages.
Details about set length, guest performers, and the creative concept will emerge in the coming months as production ramps up and promotional cycles begin. For now, the announcement itself is the headline: a three-time Grammy winner and one of the biggest stars in contemporary music will take the Super Bowl stage a moment that promises to be as much about cultural recognition as about a two-to-four-minute performance squeezed into the middle of the NFL’s championship night. Fans, industry watchers, and advertisers will all be watching for how Bad Bunny and the producers choose to tell a story of music, identity and spectacle on February 8, 2026.
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